This season I had the opportunity, through our local Little League, to get some coaches training from Positive Coaching Alliance. One of the primary tenants taught is getting the athletes to focus on things that are in their control.
While this sounds like a simple enough concept, it wasn’t until the light was shined on this concept that I realized how much the kids are all focused on things that are, in fact, out of their control.
I’m known for my baseball colloquialisms, as I often have parents quoting me and following it up by asking what the heck I’m talking about. However, this season, if I had to sum it up to a single concept, it would be “What’s in ‘your’ control”.
What I found, with my own team this season, is how many of the kids were focused on all the things that were not directly in their control. You’ll recognize this pattern if you’ve heard any of your athletes say any of the following:
“Coach, where am I batting today?”
“Coach, am I pitching today?”
“The team we’re playing is undefeated!”
“The umpire is awful.”
“We’re losing 5-1.”
“What inning are we in?”
“That pitcher throws hard!”
These are just some of the key phrases that will tell you that your athletes are not focused on the things that are in their control and are simply being distracted by the noise that surrounds the game.
However, it’s not enough for you, as the coach, to just recognize this but you also have to deal with parents who are also caught up in things that are out of their control as well. Parents, often, are too concerned with Win/Loss records, the scoreboard, their child’s batting average, the number of strikeouts their son/daughter has and umpire calls.
Here’s the thing. A child often takes his/her cue of what’s important to focus on from their parents and coaches. In a nutshell, as a parent or coach, if you’re focused on these distractions, there’s a good chance that the children are, as well.
A coach has a tough job. You thought you were signing up to hold some practices, teach some fundamentals, manage a lineup and call some plays on the field; however it’s much more complicated. A good coach has to manage their own focus, the focus of their players and the focus of the parents.
The process of managing this focus is actually pretty well laid out by the Positive Coaching Alliance. They recognize the pyramid that makes up the foundation of Championship teams. The great thing about the PCA program is they lay out the “roles and responsibilities” for the Manager/Coaches, the Player and the Parents and do it in such a way that doesn’t alienate any one role, but rather explains the importance of each role and the responsibility (their focus) in the process.
So what should a player focus on?
In simplest terms, they need to focus on the things they can control, such as:
- As a batter…
- Getting front foot down early enough so that they are able to make an educated decision to swing, take a pitch or protect themselves.
- Understand the count, working towards a hitter’s count (1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 2-1, 3-1)
- As pitchers…
- Focus on getting the 1st pitch over for a strike each at bat.
- Disrupting the timing of the hitter through use of change up.
- Working to pitcher’s counts (0-1, 0-2, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2)
- As fielders…
- Knowing the situation. Where to throw the ball if it comes to you.
- Backing up bases
- Attacking the short hop
These are just some of the few things that you want to remind the kids to focus on during the game. These are the things that will directly affect the scoreboard, their averages and wins and losses.
There’s more to the story behind the final score of a game, the wins and losses that reflect the outcome of games played. Often you can point to key plays in a game where an athlete may have lost their focus that directly affected the outcome.
Taking a strike three call when the umpire has been calling that pitch a strike all night long. The player who slowed down going to first base on a ground out, that might have been safe had he ran through the bag at full speed. A player who is upset about a strike three call and fails to take first on the drop ball third strike.
When you start addressing these small individual plays that were directly in the control of the player and pointing them out, they start to understand how the outcome of the game could have looked a lot different had our focus been on what we could control during those moments.
Recently I read an article at The Season (a GameChanger blog) that discussed some key statistics that directly affect the results of the game. The great thing about these particular stats is that they are a reflection of things that are directly in control of each player on the field. It gives the players some key things to focus on during the game.
The article, “How to Win in Youth Baseball (Hint – the answer is NOT on the scoreboard!)” points out that winning in youth baseball has less to do with the scoreboard and more to do with these three key statistics.
“Here is the simple recipe for how to win in youth baseball:
1. Win 3 innings. Teams that win 3 innings win 90% of their games.2. Have 15 or more Quality At-Bats. Teams that achieve this win 80% of their games.
3. Limit Walks + Reached on Errors to 5 or less. Teams that achieve this win 80% of their games.”
The article goes on to say, “In a single game, if you accomplish 2 of the three above, you will win over 90% of the time.”
What I particularly like about the above stats were the fact that these are all key things that the kids can focus on during the game. Don’t worry about the score on the board, worry about winning the inning. Focus on the key attributes that make up a “Quality AB“, as these are all directly in their control each and every pitch of every at bat. Limiting the number of errors and walks are key areas of focus for pitchers and fielders on defense.
Getting the kids to focus on what they can control is a lot easier said than done but I challenge you to start by listening (quietly) to the words spoken by your players at your next game. Where is there focus? Is it on the things that they can control or on things that will only serve to distract them. Additionally, where is your focus and where is the focus of the parents?